Keep your sharing of the gospel simple.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Keep your sharing of the gospel simple.

During the April 2014 General Conference, Elder Scott answered one of my questions when he gave this great advice: "Keep your sharing of the gospel simple."

As I was teaching this to my children this morning, my plan was to focus on that line, but then we read:

"Your personal testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is a powerful tool." And I decided it would be more fun to cut and color images of power tools than to talk about 'keeping our gospel sharing simple'. After all, a child's testimony is already simple! That's one thing they are good at!

Elder Scott continues, "To be effective and to do as Christ has done, concentrate on this basic principle of the gospel: the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes possible our becoming more like our Father in Heaven so that we can live together eternally in our family units."

After reading this line, we practiced restating this basic principle in our own words: Because of the Atonement of Christ, we can become more like our Heavenly Father each day and, someday, live with our families forever.

Elder Scott says--and this has become one of my favorite lines from his talk--, "There is no doctrine more fundamental to our work than the Atonement of Jesus Christ. At every appropriate opportunity, testify of the Savior and of the power of His Atoning sacrifice. Use scriptures that teach of Him and why He is the perfect pattern for everyone in life."

At every appropriate opportunity, testify of the Savior and of his Atoning sacrifice.

At every appropriate opportunity.

I am guessing there are many more "appropriate opportunities" to share our testimony of the Savior than we are currently taking advantage of!

I am sensitive to this. I never want an opportunity to pass when I knew I could have said something faith-promoting to another person and didn't. The Spirit simply won't let me, if I am listening even a little bit to its promptings. A long time ago, I promised that I would share His gospel, and I am still making good on that promise. I guess we've all made that promise, right? It can be simpler than we think, in fact Elder Scott is asking us to make it a simple endeavor.

And how can we prepare ourselves for these "opportunities" that will surely come to us day in and day out? According to Elder Scott, "You will need to study diligently. Do not become so absorbed with trivial things that you miss learning the doctrine and teachings of the Lord. With a solid, personal doctrinal foundation, you will be a powerful source for sharing vital truths with others who desperately need them."

I have to think that our memorizing of the Book of Mormon ABCs is helping with that (even if we are only on letter K!!) We will get there.

And what could these "trivial things" be to which Elder Scott refers...what trivial things are we absorbed with at times that cause us to miss learning the basic doctrines? I'll just let you answer that for yourself, dear reader. And I will answer it for myself.

All right, well, we had fun coloring these images of power tools that I found on the internet. Everyone made their own little collage of sorts and wrote what they wanted to remember from Elder Scott's talk.

Scarlett didn't like any of the power tools that I printed out, because she was the only one who didn't get a "say" in what we printed. So I told her to think of the tools that Mommy uses around the house and draw some. She drew a camera...of course, and chose a measuring tape, too. Sounds about right.

I like having my children repeat back or reteach or journal what we just learned...something I guess I picked up from teaching the Come Follow Me lessons. It allows me to gauge how much of the truths they are comprehending. I can see if I've taught it effectively or if I need to reteach it to them for clarity or take another approach to help them understand.